What is a
Jew more than another man? for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly;
neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a
Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God."
Rom. ii. 28, 29.
Mr. Dymock would not listen to honest Shanty on this subject, much as he
respected him; and, indeed, the poor Laird was at this time deeply
oppressed with other matters.
He had, in his various speculations, so entirely neglected his own
affairs for some years past, that poverty, nay actual penury, was
staring in his face. He had formerly mortgaged, by little and little,
most of his lands, and nothing now remained to make money of, but the
Castle itself and a few acres around it, with the exception only of a
cottage and a small field, hitherto occupied by a labourer, which lay in
a kind of hollow on the side of the knoll, where the entrance of the
secret cavern was. This cottage was as remote from Dymock's Tower in one
way, as Shanty's shed was in another; although the three dwellings
formed together a sort of equilateral triangle. Mr. Dymock long
suspected that this labourer had done his share to waste his substance;
and once or twice it had occurred to him, that if he left the Castle he
might retire to the cottage.
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